This will be a compilation review of the entire Hannaford Prep series by J. Bree. There are four books in the series: Just Drop Out, Make Your Move, Play the Game, and To the End. I’ll be reviewing them as one but this will also be a spoiler free review, so there’s no worry there.
Hannaford Prep is a New Adult romance series featuring plenty of violence, sexual situations and language, and a polyamorous relationship.
This is the story of Lips, a girl from the slums who grew up in foster care and worked her way to a coveted scholarship to the prestigious Hannaford Prep. She faces a whole new world of rich people and their egos, politics, and manipulative and controlling tendencies. But for Lips it’s not really anything new as we learn she has a dark and dirty past that’s prepared her for just about anything.
After she starts off the school year on the wrong foot with some of the most powerful kids in the school, Lips has a lot more to handle than just schoolwork.
What comes out of these rivalries is what really makes this series amazing. The relationships Lips forms through the series are the kind I love to read. She gathers the perfect found family for herself, with people who would fight and die for each other. Their struggles really drive home the concept that blood does not make a family, that the family we choose for ourselves can be so much stronger than the one we happened to be born into.
The way each character grows and develops through the series is fantastic, something I constantly search for in the books I read. The best part of all their relationships is the clearly strong bonds between other characters, not just their bonds with Lips. This isn’t just a story of a girl who finds romantic love. She finds so much more than that.
Another awesome thing to point out is how badass Lips is. If you have an aversion to extreme violence, or don’t like MCs who have no qualms about committing extreme violence against others, then you might not want to read this one. I for one loved it, how bloody and harsh and terrifying the story could be. Lips and her family truly are ruthless and deadly.
All in all, this was an incredible series with so many characters I fell super hard for. I already want to reread it. But for now I’ll settle for impatiently waiting for J. Bree’s next book, The Butcher of the Bay, which will be a prequel spin off of sorts telling the story of one of the best characters from this series. I need it now.
I rated each book in this series with 5 stars.
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